Network service providers deploy large volumes of equipment in homes and businesses to facilitate the delivery of television, internet, and phone services. This equipment, typically referred to as customer premises equipment (CPE) can comprise remote gateways, set-top boxes, digital video recorder (DVR) devices, etc. A typical deployment for a large network service provider could result in many variations and configurations of such devices installed in a variety of manners.
Maintenance of these devices is especially difficult since the service provider cannot physically access the devices without attending a customer premises, which is prohibitively expensive. Further, these devices typically reside in uncontrolled environments with an unpredictable exposure to environmental conditions, usage patterns, and other external parameters, which can impact performance. If the device starts to malfunction as a result of these unpredictable effects, a customer will experience degraded experience which may trigger a call or other communication with a call center, etc. operated by the network service provider. This, in turn, may lead to degraded customer satisfaction, unnecessary technical dispatches, and even disconnections.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.